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H.S. Softball: High Point nips Lenape for N1,G2 title

Photo by Marie Dirle/New Jersey Herald - Brianna Franko hugs Ally Frei as the rest of the team crowds around following High Point's North 1, Group 2 championship game win against Lenape Valley Friday, May 30. High Point beat Lenape 1-0.

WANTAGE — Whichever team won, whichever team escaped Friday with a North 1, Group 2 softball championship, knew it would be hard-earned.

Ultimately, it was High Point sneaking past Lenape Valley, 1-0, in the sectional title game on Friday afternoon at High Point High School. Next to a packed parking lot was a packed field, loaded with fans who watched a game that was everything it was supposed to be — two strong area teams, two crisp defenses, two stellar pitchers battling hard for the crown.

High Point emerged with a slim victory on the strength of Ally Frei’s solo home run to dead-center in the bottom of the sixth inning. And when the Patriots couldn’t rebound in the top of the seventh, the Wildcats were North 1, Group 2 champions. They will play a Group 2 semifinal against Lyndhurst in Bloomfield on Tuesday afternoon.

High Point bagged its second sectional title in three years, having won the North 1, Group 3 crown in 2012. The ‘Cats wanted to be sectional champs again. And they are.

“It’s wonderful,” High Point coach Barbara Fasano said. “We did it together. We’re a true team, we’re a unit.”

“This means a lot to us,” Wildcats senior first baseman and co-captain Chelsea Eckert said. “We’ve been working so hard for this, and it’s such a great accomplishment.”

“It feels great,” said Frei, a senior co-captain and Friday’s winning pitcher. “I think it feels even better than the last time (2012). Senior year (now), we didn’t want this to be our last game.”

“From the beginning, when we came into preseason, we had our goals,” High Point senior second baseman and co-captain Carly Satter said. “As we get along (in the season), we get a lot more confident. There’s more on our plate, there’s more at stake, so the pressure helps us.”

Frei on the mound for High Point and Kaela Romano on the hill for Lenape Valley seemed to portend another low-scoring game — the Wildcats had edged the Patriots, 1-0, in an April 22 regular-season matchup. Sure enough, Friday’s game was indeed low-scoring. It was scoreless, in fact, until the bottom of the sixth inning, when High Point finally broke through.

Cassie O’Hern led off that half-inning with a bloop single that bounced just fair behind third base. Frei was up next, looking to bunt O’Hern over, get the runner in scoring position.

But the Patriots foiled that strategy when their catcher, Megan Buonpane, threw to first baseman Bri Simko and picked off O’Hern. So, rather than a small-ball mentality, Frei chose to swing away at the next offering from Romano, and she clobbered that pitch over the centerfield fence, a blast carrying more than 210 feet.

Though she crushed it, Frei wasn‘t sure what kind of pitch it was.

“I honestly couldn’t even tell you,” she said. “I was so caught up in the moment. But it felt good off the bat.”

“She drilled it,” Fasano said. “When it came off the bat, you knew it was gone. Offensively, defensively, she just gets it done.”

Frei wound up with 17 strikeouts, putting her state-best career mark at 1,395. More importantly, the Wildcats (26-2) are North 1, Group 2 champions, and are headed to the group semis, just two wins from their ultimate goal — an overall Group 2 crown.

“They don’t want to shut that locker-room door,” Fasano said. “They’re having a great time. We just love coaching them.”